PLAYING his first electro-pop gigs in Edinburgh and Glasgow holds no fears for Jim Kerr - after narrowly avoiding being held hostage at gunpoint in Brazil.

The singer, who is promoting his new solo project, Lostboy AKA, was on tour with Simple Minds when an armed drug gang stormed his hotel in Rio de Janeiro just after he had checked out.

Police fought a three-hour battle with the 60-strong gang, who seized 35 hotel guests in the raid. One woman gang member was shot dead and four cops were wounded.

Jim said: "We played one of the best shows we've ever done in Rio to 6000 fans who knew every word of songs such as Waterfront and Up On The Catwalk.

"There were people in tears when we played Today I Died Again. We got treated like royalty.

"A few hours after we checked out of our hotel a drug gang from the favellas - shanty towns - stormed into the lobby and held 35 guests hostage at gunpoint.

"We'd been sitting there earlier that day. We watched the whole siege live on TV news on our way to the next gig. I couldn't believe it."

Jim will appear at Glasgow Garage on November 23 and Edinburgh Liquid Rooms the following night as part of his Electroset New direction: Performing as tour in his new guise as music alter-ego Lostboy. He is currently promoting new EP She Fell In Love With Silence.

Jim launched Lostboy AKA with a full-band UK tour earlier this year.

But on this show, he'll perform an electronic set with just a keyboard player and one backing singer.

He said: "I don't want to be tied down to one particular format. Right now, it's the smaller three-piece outfit that suits my curiosity.

"The next Lostboy album could have a more electro sound so it's best to prepare for that now. This is not to say the rock element would be totally sacrificed. But I don't want to make the same record twice."

Jim has also been locked in the studio working on new songs for a Simple Minds release in 2011.

He said: "We're recording new songs as part of a new - but more alternative - greatest hits album. We get a lot of kids coming to our gigs.

They don't know where to start if they're just getting into our music.

"We'll be putting a new compilation together which will include some tracks from early in our career. We unearthed songs which didn't make it on to albums like Empires And Dance or Sparkle In The Rain."

Lostboy Jim has even been invited to return to Brazil and can't wait to go back. He added: "The fans there have real passion for great music."